LONDON: The death toll reported by Gaza's health ministry in the first 17 days after Israeli attacks on the territory was accurate, according to new research.
The UK Air Forces Group has revealed that the Hamas-run ministry has identified 7,000 people killed in Israeli attacks in the first weeks of the conflict.
It also said its own research, which assessed 350 incidents, identified 3,000 casualties during that period, with 75 percent of the dead identified by the ministry, leading to the belief that official reports are likely to be largely accurate.
Airwars, which works to independently assess the impact of conflict on civilians, said it used the same methodology used to estimate figures from conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Libya and elsewhere.
It also said that more than 350 incidents had occurred during that period and that it would continue to study the conflict, but believed that the statistics in Gaza were becoming less accurate as the war dragged on, with widespread destruction in the area hindering the ability of local authorities to do their jobs.
The death toll at the start of the conflict was striking, said Emily Tripp, the group's director.
“In each incident, there were more deaths than we’ve seen in any other campaign,” she told the New York Times. “The violence was more severe than any other campaign we’ve ever documented.”
Many international groups and other experts have also said the ministry's information is initially correct.
Mike Spagat, a professor at Royal Holloway College, University of London, who reviewed Airwars' findings, told the NYT that the group's figures “largely capture the ground reality” of what Gaza officials reported early in the war.
A study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the US found no evidence that the ministry's data was significantly wrong until early November.
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who analysed national ID numbers from ministry data collected throughout October, found there was “no clear reason” to ask about it.
However, in December, Gaza officials, citing the collapse of infrastructure in the area, including in hospitals and morgues, announced they would begin relying on “credible media sources” for death tolls, as well as information that could be gathered on the ground.
The ministry's latest figures show at least 39,000 people have been killed since Israel began its offensive in October.
Israel has often questioned the ministry's figures, citing its ties to Hamas. Israel's Western allies have also expressed concern, with US President Joe Biden once saying he was “not sure of the death toll being used by Palestinians”. US officials have since said the data was more accurate than initially believed.
